It is up to the individual to decide whether they want to ride 200 km or not... it is up to them to interpret the rules. But it's not AUK's role to do so.
Validations should (and will) be suspended
Now, the bold bit, I agree with. The gov make the rules (just like the ones about not stabbing each-other, or drink-driving), and being adults we get on with life within them.
What I don't understand is how you leap to the idea that AUK *should* interpret the rules by choosing when to validate rides. Are AUK the police? (Or a version of the police that runs a public opinion poll every few weeks to decide which laws to enforce?)
(but we went through this a hundred times in the Spring, so I don't expect change. Oh but then again, the "AUK is for the
UK,
all for one and one for all" thing quickly went out of the window, so who knows??
)